The Henry Martyn Centre: home of some ‘hidden’ African Collections

Given that the words 'Africa' or 'African' are not present in the name of the Centre, many might be surprised at the quantity and quality of material relating to that continent, held at the Henry Martyn Centre. It is held in a variety of formats including correspondence, photographs, maps and newspapers. In addition to this archival material, the Henry Martyn Library offers a very rich resource which complements the archival holdings. Books, unpublished theses and journals about Africa are all to be found there. I will begin by explaining briefly what the Henry Martyn Centre does, and about how the archive has developed. I will then go on to explain how the very strong African link has been forged and fostered over the years. In the second half of this paper I will consider in what ways these African collections could be described as 'hidden', and how we are addressing that. I will be taking a 'case study' approach, focussing on a few key examples.History and identity of the CentreThe Henry Martyn Centre (http://www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk) was formed in 1998 to promote and support the study of missionary activity and World Christianity through the provision of archive and research facilities and through a regular programme of scholarly lectures and seminars. It continues and extends the work of the Henry Martyn Library, which has been in existence since 1898, and which was set up to commemorate Henry Martyn (1781-1812). After winning a reputation as a scholar, Martyn - who had been a student and Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge - went on to become chaplain to the East India Company and was the first translator of the Bible into Hindi and Persian, dying tragically young. We commemorated the bicentenary of his death in 2012. During the nineteenth century Martyn enjoyed renown as an inspirational cultural hero; the Henry Martyn Hall in Market Street in Cambridge was built in 1887 as a meeting place and training centre for mission and remains to this day. Although the present day Henry Martyn Centre is located on a different site, at Westminster College, Martyn's legacy is continued.The HMC archive provides a resource for all those interested in the study of the modern missionary movement. It is used by academics in the fields of history, anthropology and theology; it is also used by church leaders and members of missionary organisations interested in understanding their past. It is a resource for historical reflection for those participating in contemporary missionary activity.Structure of the archiveBroadly speaking there are two kinds of collection within the archive. In the first category are collections which are named after the missionary who created them, or the individual who gathered the papers or records together. In many cases, the material is preserved in the original order in which it was donated to us by individuals or their families. Some examples of this kind of collection are: the Joe Church collection and the Phillips collection, and I will say more about these collections later. In the second category are collections named after institutions or organisations, like the St Julian's Community and the Congo Church Association, which will also be treated separately. Most collections contain within them a mixture of formats, and different formats are not always stored separately, so if a researcher is looking for information in a particular medium they will need to be aware that it could be scattered in different places. Newspaper holdings, for example, may form part of particular collections depending on who collected or created them (i.e. by provenance). There is a very strong provenance component in the structure of our archive.How did HMC's African connection begin?The African connection has come about through the networks of people with which the Centre has historic links. The first significant collection to be added to the archives was the Hinchliff collection in 1996, given to the Henry Martyn Library by Peter Hinchliff's widow. …